SERDANG, 2 March – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has entered into collaboration with Solution Engineering Holdings Bhd. (SEH) in designing and producing a pilot plant in Puchong, Malaysia worth RM4 mil (USD1.1 mil) that will be capable to produce bio based vegetable oil.

SEH Managing Director, Barry Lim said the construction is scheduled beginning the first quarter of the year at the company’s headquarters and expected to be running in the market by 2010.

“The completed pilot plant will accommodate production up to 700 ton metrics every year,” he added.

He is targeting the product to penetrate the market in Europe, Korea, Japan and in the U.S for these countries have shown a higher demand of bio based oil which is used in the mixture process of environmental friendly bio polymer oil.

“The raw material used during the process is normally biodiesel from raw palm oil.

“Vegetable oil and other raw material from plants such as Jatropha is also usable,” he said.

Barry said Jatropha is a tropical plant that is internationally recognized due to its potential as biodiesel fuel.

According to him, a researcher from the Chemical Engineering and Environmental Department , Faculty of Engineering UPM, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Robiah Yunus leads other researchers in developing the technology process of the pilot plant.

“UPM has received Technofund grant worth RM4.55 mil (USD1.3 mil) from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation on October 7th 2007 previously for the said purpose,” he said.

He added that the collaborative project between UPM and SEH is an initial project geared towards research and commercialization.

He also mentioned that 30 percent of the endowment would be utilized for purchasing testing and analysis equipment, research and design fees, marketing and product certification as well as raw materials.

Solution Engineering possesses expertise in designing and developing engineering instruction equipment such as chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering as well as controller.